After all, who wouldn't want to avoid traffic gridlock, save money on gas, dodge unproductive meetings and spend more time with their family?

An increasing number of companies have embraced telecommuting as a way of reducing costs, increasing efficiency and retaining talented workers who might otherwise go elsewhere. But many businesses are still reluctant to give employees that kind of freedom. Some managers fear the loss of direct supervisory control, while others worry that telecommuters will become distracted and spend time on personal matters when they should be working.

And then there's the issue of collaboration. Some say that takes a serious hit when key employees aren't around for the spontaneous give-and-take of ideas.

That conflict reared its head last week when Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer issued a memo ordering the company's telecommuting employees back to the office.

"Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings," Yahoo human resources head Jackie Reses said in the memo. "Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo, and that starts with physically being together."

"By not expanding the use of telecommuting, employers are negatively impacting the environment, worker productivity, job satisfaction - and most importantly - their bottom lines," Challenger said in a statement. "And it is not a lack of technology or other resources that is holding back this expansion. It is simply a lack of vision, a shortage of trust and an irrational adherence to antiquated notions of how and where work should be done."

Success stories

There are certainly success stories to be told.

Steve Batte, a senior financial consultant with United Healthcare, began telecommuting from his Echo Park home about five years ago. At first it was just two days a week, but he has since ramped that up to a full-time, work-at-home schedule.

"For me, it's great," Batte said. "I'm more productive than ever because I don't spend two hours a day driving. So I'm more likely to log in late at night or on weekends to fix things I've been thinking about. I'm on the phone or Webex to the same co-workers in Hartford or Minneapolis all day - it doesn't make much difference whether I'm sitting in my den or in a cubicle in the office."

A new study backed by researchers at Stanford University found a 13 percent increase in performance among employees who were asked to work from home four or five days a week. Nine percent of that gain came from employees working more minutes than their shift time, and 4 percent came from a higher-performance-per-minute output.

The participants in the study, who work at a Chinese call center, also reported higher levels of job satisfaction and were 50 percent less likely to quit than their co-workers who continued to work out of the corporate office.

Avery Dennison, which makes and sells pressure-sensitive labeling and packaging materials globally, offers both telecommuting and flexible work schedules for some of its Pasadena employees.

"It's really on a case-by-case basis," company spokesman David Frail said. "If you had a writing project, for example, you could do part of that work at home. Or it might make sense for someone to work from home before driving to the airport. Logistics is a helpful way to think about it."

In other instances, Frail said it's better for an employee to be at the office.

"Sometimes there is a benefit to being with your peers or working face-to-face with part of your team," he said. "But I have my laptop and smartphone at home, so some days I'll get some work done there before I get in the car and drive to work. It's all about getting our jobs done as effectively and efficiently as possible."

Avery employs nearly 30,000 people worldwide, including about 150 who work in Pasadena.

Numbers on the rise

Lisa Boosin, a freelance advertising copywriter in Los Angeles, said she also prefers working from home.

On those occasions when she has to be at a client's business, Boosin said she's bombarded by loud telemarketers, people coming in an out of nearby conference rooms and a myriad of other distractions.

"People are talking all the time," she said. "Working at home is easier."

Challenger's call for increased telecommuting comes on the heels of a new report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The study reveals that increased traffic congestion is forcing the nation's workers to factor in extra time to their daily commutes. In 2011, that amounted to $121 billion in wasted time and fuel.

Recent statistics from the Telework Research Network indicate that 3.1 million people - not including self-employed or unpaid volunteers - considered home to be their primary place of work in 2011. That's about 2.5 percent of all U.S. nonfarm jobs.

The number of telecommuters increased 73 percent between 2005 and 2011, but it still falls well short of the potential. Telework figures as many as 64 million U.S. employees - nearly half the nation's total workforce - hold a job that is compatible with telework.

"If there is any resistance from employees, it is most likely related to how increased telecommuting might impact their status in the office," Challenger said. "There is a perception that if you are not in the office, you are more likely to miss important meetings, get passed over for promotion or get targeted for layoff in the event of a downsizing."

Challenger admitted that those fears could influence someone's decision to telecommute. But he also noted that while companies have embraced the latest portable tablets, laptops, social networking and video conferencing technologies, they still expect people to report to work from 9 to 5. And workers, he said, are often judged more on "face time" than on the quality of their output.

Not for everyone

That may be true, but as Patty Blum knows, telcommuting isn't for everyone.

Blum is the owner and CEO of Compliance Poster, a Monrovia business that makes state, federal and OSHA labor-law posters. Her company tried telecommuting with disastrous results.

"We had a guy who worked in sales in our office for about four years and was a very good employee," she said. "He lived out in the desert, so we finally set him up at home with a phone, computer and business leads. After a while we found out he was doing a plumbing job on the side when he should have been working for us."

The employee also had a baby at home, Blum said, and the company began receiving complaints from customers who said he was often distracted when they called and frequently put them on hold.

"That probably cost us about $100,000," she said.

The situation was particularly egregious in light of the company's corporate culture. Compliance provides free medical, dental and vision coverage for its employees, and workers also get free family gym memberships and free breakfast, lunch - and even dinner - if they work late.

"We gave him a second chance but the same thing happened," Blum said. "I think it takes a person with real focus to work from home ... someone who really cares about the company."

Maria Tollefson, HR director for Communispace, a Boston-based company that develops online consumer communities for business, firmly supports telecommuting. But she acknowledged that companies that offer telecommuting must have very specific guidelines.

"The key is putting those guardrails in place," she said. "But telecommuting allows a company to attract the best employees from a loyalty and skills perspective - and it's the A players you're looking for."

Changing culture

Tollefson said telecommuting plays well into a growing workplace culture that affords more worktime flexibility for employees - whether they telecommute or not.

"We see telecommuting as part of the need for flexibility where people can have a better balance of life and work," she said.

With operations in the U.S., London and Shanghai, Communispace employs a total of about 450 workers. Roughly 20 percent of those employees telecommute or have flexible work schedules that allow them to better attend to personal matters and spend more time with their families, Tollefson said.

"We see this as the way to go," she said. "We're seeing it a lot with professional firms. People will be more productive if they are allowed to work in a flexible way."